The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Borat is back, and the political right needs to take cover
Not for all tastes, ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’ another showcase for the bold, brave comedy of Baron Cohen
Fourteen years is long enough to forget just how hard it is to write about a “Borat” movie.
In 2006, the brilliant Sacha Baron Cohen released his first big-screen serving of his outlandish Kazakh journalist character, Borat Sagdiyev, interacting with — for the most part, anyway — real folks unaware they were taking part in a mockumentary comedy.
“Borat” — the longer title of which is “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” — was a commercial and critical success.
It was incredibly hilarious and also incredibly outlandish. The movie earned an R rating for “pervasive strong crude and sexual content including graphic nudity, and language.” That only kinda covers it. Well, Baron Cohen’s fre
quently cringe-inducing creation is back in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” which is being released on Amazon’s Prime Video platform. As was the case with its predecessor, much of its content can’t be very deeply explored in a publication for a general audience. (The film warns at the start it is unsuitable for children under 3. Thanks for that. Very helpful.)
Like the first “Borat,” “Subsequent Moviefilm” is about an hour and a half of crude, rude, clever and not-always-fair fare.
This time out, Baron Co-
hen primarily is interested in skewering America’s political right, especially the far end of that spectrum.
While this sequel’s longer title is “Borat: Gift of Sexy Monkey to Vice Premier Mikhael Pence for Make Benefit Recently Diminished Nation of Kazakhstan,” it primarily sees Borat working to gift his underage daughter to Vice President Michael Pence and, when that fails, instead to famed Trump lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Why? Because, we are told, Kazakhstan’s leader is frustrated that although President Donald J. Trump has become friendly with so many of the world’s authoritarian leaders, he hasn’t cozied up to him. So Borat — condemned to a life of labor in a gulag after the release of the first movie made Kazakhstan the butt of jokes — is released to go back to the U.S. on a mission.
The intention is to present as a gift to Trump, via Pence, Johnny the Monkey — the country’s minis
ter of culture and a, um, famous actor. However, Borat’s daughter, Tutar (Maria Bakalova), stows away in the primate’s crate and ... eats him during the long journey to the U.S. Yeah.
So, instead, Borat sets about turning the unkempt — and underage — teen into the kind of woman he believes would be acceptable to a ladies man (not the term the movie uses) such as Pence.
For roughly the first half of “Subsequent Moviefilm,” Borat and Tutar make stops that include a visit to a supposed Instagram influencer — Borat refers to the young blond woman who will teach Tutar how to find a “sugar daddy” as “one of America’s leading feminists” — as well as a hair salon, spray-tan business, bakery, a surgical center offering breast augmentation and a women’s health center. (From that, you should be able to guess some, if not all, of the themes ex
plored by Baron Cohen and the movie’s other credited writers.)
This all culminates with the pair working their way into February’s Conservative Political Action Conference, where Pence is a speaker. Borat enters CPAC loudly claiming to be Stephen Miller, senior advisor to the president, while wearing quite the attentiongrabbing costume. Wow.
Even though Borat then uses a different disguise he thinks will appeal more to Pence, he soon must move on to Plan B: Giuliani.
However, Borat has a falling out with Tutar, who comes to realize women aren’t the incredibly limited humans her father has painted them to be.
Also around this point in the movie’s production, the novel coronavirus pandemic becomes a part of daily life, and Borat finds shelter with a pair of conspiracy theory-believing gents.
While she gives us no moment akin to that wonderful scene near the end of “Lost in Translation” between Murray’s character and the woman played by Johansson — where we, the audience, aren’t privy to their exchange — Coppola continues to excel with a less-is-more approach to dialogue.
As for the central mystery as to whether Dean is
cheating, Coppola tips her hand a bit, but, again, that isn’t really what “On the Rocks” is about.
For us, it’s mostly about enjoying more work by the prolific and enduring Murray. Jones (“BlackAF,” “The Office”) does some nice things here, but this is Murray’s show.
When the mystery is solved, for better or for worse, Laura suggests to Felix the next time he wants to spend some time with his daughter he simply should ask.
What fun would that be?